Bixby's voice assistant aspect has been delayed for a long time in the United States. It debuted in Korea on May 1st, but it was delayed for us 'Muricans because there were reportedly some issues with getting it to grasp all of English's strange little rules. Last we'd heard, Samsung had unveiled a Bixby Early Access program for the impatient. Bixby voice is finally officially available in the US of A, and Samsung is trying to get Galaxy S8 owners on board by rewarding them for using the assistant.

So what exactly can Bixby do via voice commands? Samsung lists examples like turning on the flashlight, taking a screenshot, shooting a selfie, creating a photo album, and dictating reminders. Currently, Bixby works with "several core Samsung apps," but expansion will obviously follow. But if you want to try out integration with other apps right now, Bixby Labs will permit you to experiment with upcoming ones such as Google Maps, Play Music, YouTube, Facebook, and more.

If you have an AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, or Verizon Galaxy S8 or S8+, just hit the ever-annoying Bixby button on the side of your phone to install the new voice update, which weighs in at 44.7MB. The unlocked models of the S8 and S8+ aren't mentioned, though I don't see why Samsung would choose to exclude them from this. Once this is completed, you should be able to activate Bixby by either holding the Bixby button or saying, "Hi, Bixby." Of course, you can still circumvent this if you decide you don't like Samsung's latest creation.

Interestingly, Samsung is encouraging S8 owners to use Bixby by setting up a rewards system. The more you send messages, make calls, update settings, or give feedback via Bixby, the more XP you'll get. From now until September 14th, this XP can then be converted into Samsung Rewards points, which you may remember as the incentive system for Samsung Pay.

Oh, and by the way, that "Bixby.com" in the title of the first embedded video is extremely misleading. I don't know why Samsung felt the need to put that in, but it just redirects to bixbyok.gov, the official city page of Bixby, Oklahoma that looks like it came straight out of 1994. Did you know that there was a city called Bixby? I didn't.